I’m really excited. I’ve been living here three years, and for the first time, it looks like I have some birds nesting in the nesting box at the bottom of my garden. I only have one decent tree, and it is the same one I had the flock of Bohemian Waxwings in in January.

I think it’s a pair of blue tits. They spent a few days in March clearing out what was probably a bit of a mess in there, but seem to have settled down now. They probably don’t have chicks on their wings yet, or I’d expect there to be a lot more activity, but I suspect the big day won’t be too far off!

It’s a cloudy day here, and it was tricky to persuade my camera to focus properly with all the twigs between me and the box, but here are the best pictures I managed to get of my uncooperative new friends!

It’s been slow posting here of late. I’ve not been feeling too well to be honest, but being able to watch these little chaps from my desk is cheering me right up!

I’ve just started some new medication, and it’s giving me some fairly impressive dizziness and nausea. It’ll most likely just be for a few days while my body is getting used to it, but it does mean that I’m less than eager to go running around in phase 5 of Rift’s Beta test. Hopefully we’ll pick up the liveblog in phase 6.

This post is far too short. Help me out, Mr Reeves!

Unbelievably, that’s really the only video of that performance I could find. Still awesome though!

I’m still alive! Just not feeling very opinionated at the moment. I’m working on a couple of little bits and bobs that might come to light at some point, and, of course, the Rift Beta will be heading into phase 5 on the 25th of January and I’ll be there to tell of what I encounter in another episode of my Beta liveblog.

In between all that, I work on my Scatman John impersonations. Bingbiddabingbinddabingadongadong. No, really, I do. He was a fellow with some mighty lyrics, a wonderful hat, a fellow stutterer, and a genuinely good soul. I’d like to be him when I grow up. Here’s my very favourite bit of his work:

Update: This is the biggest decision I’m planning on making today.

Tinned Sausage Decisions. Tony the Tiger looks on with interest.

I just took that pic to show a friend, but while taking it, I noticed something bizarre. It’s the same sausage in both pictures!!! Did they carefully pick the baked beans off it, and then artistically drape it with spaghetti rings, or was it Photoshopped? I have to know!

Mr Breki and Mr Petter were kind enough to invite me on as the special guest for the relaunch of their Claims of the Normal Podcast.

It was the first time I’d done anything quite like it, and there’s probably several minutes of me just going “Ummm”. I also say “Basically”, “actually”, and “pretty much” vastly too often. Valuable lessons were learned, and I had a whole lot of fun. My thanks to my fine hosts for making me feel so welcome and at ease.

We discussed Rift, EQ2, WoW’s Cataclysm expansion, DCUO, and a whole lot more. If you fancy checking the show out, you can find it here!

I’m back home after a fun time with my Dad, a few pounds heavier, and laden with swag. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and is feeling recovered enough to face the New Year. It was a bit of a hellish journey home, with trains being cancelled to the left and right, but the reward of sleeping in my own bed again was worth the replacement buses and hikes between stations.

The Rift beta NDA has dropped while I’ve been away, so I’ll be posting about that for the next few days, I expect. Though you may well be already sick of hearing about it! The hype is being laid on pretty thick in some quarters.

Over the holiday, my Dad and I finally finished our run through Deep Space 9. It’s always a rather sad moment when you reach the end of a series that amazing, and I’m not sure what the next show we’ll tackle will be. Because I still have DS9 swimming about in my head, and it is pretty appropriate for the start of a new year, here’s sentient hologram Vic Fontaine and Captain Benjamin Sisko with “The Best Is Yet To Come”!

I don’t know whether Vic Fontaine is in Star Trek Online yet, but he’ll certainly be making a personal appearance just as soon as the Foundry goes live! Being an ageless sentient hologram has its benefits, and in fact we know that he’s still going many thousands of years after the events of STO! Comforting to know, as the Universe don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!

It’s going to be slow posting for a little while, while I visit my Dad for Christmas. His computer is a little primeval, and oddly, he tends to expect me to not spend all my time on it! That’s the oldsters for you!

So I’ll probably not be doing too many gaming posts, and certainly won’t be making any gaming videos, but I might be able to squeeze in a few pictures. Here’s some I took on my journey here, outside a snowy Waterloo station in London, while waiting for my connection to the West Country. I’m always taken aback by how grand our old train stations are, and rather wish we could still build like this.

This entrance commemorates the Great War, and the employees of the train companies who fell during that conflict.

Waterloo Station - Your gateway to Mesopotamia and the Dardanelles

Statue to the left of the Waterloo Entrance signifying War and its costs.

The statue to the right of Waterloo's entrance, representing Peace and all its bounties.

I had some interesting visitors in my back garden for a little while this morning.

I have no idea what these birds are. They were around the size of a starling. Notably, many of them seemed to have a head-crest.

You can click the picture for a rather larger version. As usual, my cheap camera utterly failed to get a decent picture.

Update: After a little research, it looks as if they were Bohemian Waxwings, not commonly found in the UK, though plentiful over in Northern Europe. Perhaps they came over for the winter. If so, I hope they weren’t too put out by the awful weather of the last few weeks. It has warmed up a little now, at least. I don’t think I’ve ever seen waxwings before. I hope they come back.

Update: They came back :) Only about ten of them this time. I guess that means they must be living locally. Neat!